Sunday, May 30, 2010
Reveal to me my destiny, God
Reveal to me my destiny, God. It wasn’t a question. It was more like a command. I had to know. I was in my 20’s and didn’t have a career or much schooling past college at that point. I felt compelled to avoid wasting my time on earth, being driven by an urgency that didn’t take for granted an allotted life span. Somehow I knew I didn’t want to waste a moment. I had to know: Why am I here? What do I have to share with others?
Isaiah 45:11 says, “Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of the things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands COMMAND YE ME.”
Command means just that. The original Hebrew is tsuvah: to constitute, enjoin, appoint, bid, give charge, send with command, send a messenger, put in order. Okay…So God is initiating that statement? Yes. Yes. And Yes.
If you’re curious as I was, consulting the Strong’s dictionary, the “ask” portion of the reading means: demand, counsel on, lay to charge, inquire, consult. He wants relationship, and a close one, that much is sure…
I think we attained this privileged stance because of Jesus blessing in saying: " I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father (John 15:15) We are a part of the great and wonderful family of God, if we know Him…not just know of Him, but intimately know Him as friend and Love.
When we’re friends with someone we know they’re there for us, we can ask them anything and they’ll do everything in their power to do it because they love us. Some have disputed this passage and made it into things that it isn’t. They don’t know their position. I think this passage is God’s love declaration. We will do anything possible for those we love, won’t we? He is saying, just ask…even command, my love…
We know that God is supreme and is above all the other gods men invent. When we attain to that knowledge, surrender to Him, and join with Him as One (“That they may be one even as we are one.” John 17:21) He says, in my opinion, “I am channeling my desires through your spirit. Note them, desire them and ask me, even command me to bring them to pass. Then watch it happen loved one…”
In my own life, God wanted me to discover the purpose early on and begin to prepare. I had written love letters and poems to Him since I was 14. True, I wandered a few years off my path, but always ultimately returned to His side. I knew Him like a true friend, a loved member of family…
When I demanded the revelation of my destiny calling, the main reason I was born onto this earth against all odds (and that is a whole other story in itself) He was excited, anxious to show it to me. But He waited. And waited. And waited. He is God, remember? He has that privilege. And often because He has a bigger plan that we just can’t comprehend at the time.
Meantime, while I felt like a fish out of water on the earth casting about from one thing to another to bring fulfillment, He cultivated passions in my heart, life, spirit…As I look back the passions were each stepping stones or puzzle pieces that would fill in perfectly to complete the whole. This is so incredibly important. What I am saying is that nothing in my life was wasted. And as I look at other’s lives who know Him, it is the same exquisite use of days, times, talents, passions and interests. He is a master artist of the palette of the human spirit and it is sheer fascination to see the finished work as a whole.
In fact, it’s become an interesting pursuit for me to examine the lives of the elderly saints (and we are all saints who are called by His name aren’t we?) and see the intricate patterning laid down in childhood and carried out through the years into the place of ultimate fulfillment or destiny attainment.
I once asked a dear friend in her late 50’s if she’d ever asked that question: What is my destiny? What am I here for? Why was I created? What can I offer on this earth to my fellow man?
Sadly, she never asked the vital question. She had married into wealth and has a very handsome, successful husband. She had a family, land and large position in the market. Yet, there was an undeniable shallowness and insecurity; a fear of losing her looks and thus, her husband who seemed as shallow as she.
Her hovering over her grown children threatened the loss of them as well. They were older, and unmarried and childless which vexed her. She sought after yoga, Buddhism and social achievements. In the world’s eyes, she had it made. She was a multimillionaire. But I saw into the deficiencies of spirit, the unsettled emotional life, and it brought it all home.
Do you know how I saw this in her originally before the deep focus? It was in the casting about from job to job to find meaning…Nietzsche said, 'He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.'" There was no underlying “why” being demonstrated. In this life and in so many others, this important demand/command was never contemplated much less asked. And so there is a vacantness, a shallowness; ultimately a delusion as the individual falls for the worldly view of fulfillment that is an empty shell in reality.
Rumi, ancient Persian mystic and Sufi poet said, “Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do.”
When I commanded God to reveal my destiny I was already doing it and loving doing it, but it was unpaid for and unnoticed at that time. I was ignorant and oblivious how our Creator works. Years passed and I added and added to my path- my life’s work- unaware all the time that it was indeed my path. How can we be one with God and unaware? Perhaps a bit of worldliness remained, youth or lack of vision. Perhaps the path was so different from that of others that it was by all intents, unrecognizable.
When I approached the 50th year of my life, I asked God as I am accustomed to doing, “What are you going to give me for my birthday this year?” Each year has manifested gifts much like reading the list of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. But this year it is clearly different.
This year it is the fulfillment of the command of my twenties. I have waited twenty five long years…maybe more since that statement was posed, not as a question, but as a command, “Show me my destiny calling God…”
And now, on the cusp on my 50th birthday He says, “Katherine…I am giving you fulfillment of the command of your 20’s. I am giving to you, my love, fulfillment of your destiny calling.”
What I viewed as non response was in truth God responding to my command day by day. I feel so blessed to have commanded early on, and not in my late 50’s. By virtue of a deep loving oneness with God, my command was set into motion. My life- at the cusp of turning 50, will be one of fulfillment being fully involved in my destiny calling. All the little steps along the way- sheer genius and pure love on His part. Seriously, nothing was wasted. And so this is my gift this year.
His creativity lives on in each and every life that dares to make the command: show me my destiny God. Why am I here? And as a result, I am satisfied and completely fulfilled because of it…. So be in Oneness with Him and then ask. Command. You’re His friend. You’d do the same for Him and you know it… And you will be filled with wonder at the fruit of the years as I am.
Isaiah 45:11 says, “Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of the things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands COMMAND YE ME.”
Command means just that. The original Hebrew is tsuvah: to constitute, enjoin, appoint, bid, give charge, send with command, send a messenger, put in order. Okay…So God is initiating that statement? Yes. Yes. And Yes.
If you’re curious as I was, consulting the Strong’s dictionary, the “ask” portion of the reading means: demand, counsel on, lay to charge, inquire, consult. He wants relationship, and a close one, that much is sure…
I think we attained this privileged stance because of Jesus blessing in saying: " I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father (John 15:15) We are a part of the great and wonderful family of God, if we know Him…not just know of Him, but intimately know Him as friend and Love.
When we’re friends with someone we know they’re there for us, we can ask them anything and they’ll do everything in their power to do it because they love us. Some have disputed this passage and made it into things that it isn’t. They don’t know their position. I think this passage is God’s love declaration. We will do anything possible for those we love, won’t we? He is saying, just ask…even command, my love…
We know that God is supreme and is above all the other gods men invent. When we attain to that knowledge, surrender to Him, and join with Him as One (“That they may be one even as we are one.” John 17:21) He says, in my opinion, “I am channeling my desires through your spirit. Note them, desire them and ask me, even command me to bring them to pass. Then watch it happen loved one…”
In my own life, God wanted me to discover the purpose early on and begin to prepare. I had written love letters and poems to Him since I was 14. True, I wandered a few years off my path, but always ultimately returned to His side. I knew Him like a true friend, a loved member of family…
When I demanded the revelation of my destiny calling, the main reason I was born onto this earth against all odds (and that is a whole other story in itself) He was excited, anxious to show it to me. But He waited. And waited. And waited. He is God, remember? He has that privilege. And often because He has a bigger plan that we just can’t comprehend at the time.
Meantime, while I felt like a fish out of water on the earth casting about from one thing to another to bring fulfillment, He cultivated passions in my heart, life, spirit…As I look back the passions were each stepping stones or puzzle pieces that would fill in perfectly to complete the whole. This is so incredibly important. What I am saying is that nothing in my life was wasted. And as I look at other’s lives who know Him, it is the same exquisite use of days, times, talents, passions and interests. He is a master artist of the palette of the human spirit and it is sheer fascination to see the finished work as a whole.
In fact, it’s become an interesting pursuit for me to examine the lives of the elderly saints (and we are all saints who are called by His name aren’t we?) and see the intricate patterning laid down in childhood and carried out through the years into the place of ultimate fulfillment or destiny attainment.
I once asked a dear friend in her late 50’s if she’d ever asked that question: What is my destiny? What am I here for? Why was I created? What can I offer on this earth to my fellow man?
Sadly, she never asked the vital question. She had married into wealth and has a very handsome, successful husband. She had a family, land and large position in the market. Yet, there was an undeniable shallowness and insecurity; a fear of losing her looks and thus, her husband who seemed as shallow as she.
Her hovering over her grown children threatened the loss of them as well. They were older, and unmarried and childless which vexed her. She sought after yoga, Buddhism and social achievements. In the world’s eyes, she had it made. She was a multimillionaire. But I saw into the deficiencies of spirit, the unsettled emotional life, and it brought it all home.
Do you know how I saw this in her originally before the deep focus? It was in the casting about from job to job to find meaning…Nietzsche said, 'He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.'" There was no underlying “why” being demonstrated. In this life and in so many others, this important demand/command was never contemplated much less asked. And so there is a vacantness, a shallowness; ultimately a delusion as the individual falls for the worldly view of fulfillment that is an empty shell in reality.
Rumi, ancient Persian mystic and Sufi poet said, “Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do.”
When I commanded God to reveal my destiny I was already doing it and loving doing it, but it was unpaid for and unnoticed at that time. I was ignorant and oblivious how our Creator works. Years passed and I added and added to my path- my life’s work- unaware all the time that it was indeed my path. How can we be one with God and unaware? Perhaps a bit of worldliness remained, youth or lack of vision. Perhaps the path was so different from that of others that it was by all intents, unrecognizable.
When I approached the 50th year of my life, I asked God as I am accustomed to doing, “What are you going to give me for my birthday this year?” Each year has manifested gifts much like reading the list of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. But this year it is clearly different.
This year it is the fulfillment of the command of my twenties. I have waited twenty five long years…maybe more since that statement was posed, not as a question, but as a command, “Show me my destiny calling God…”
And now, on the cusp on my 50th birthday He says, “Katherine…I am giving you fulfillment of the command of your 20’s. I am giving to you, my love, fulfillment of your destiny calling.”
What I viewed as non response was in truth God responding to my command day by day. I feel so blessed to have commanded early on, and not in my late 50’s. By virtue of a deep loving oneness with God, my command was set into motion. My life- at the cusp of turning 50, will be one of fulfillment being fully involved in my destiny calling. All the little steps along the way- sheer genius and pure love on His part. Seriously, nothing was wasted. And so this is my gift this year.
His creativity lives on in each and every life that dares to make the command: show me my destiny God. Why am I here? And as a result, I am satisfied and completely fulfilled because of it…. So be in Oneness with Him and then ask. Command. You’re His friend. You’d do the same for Him and you know it… And you will be filled with wonder at the fruit of the years as I am.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)